I just finished aligning the first of three Discovery Education Assessments (DEA) that we give each year with the curriculum map. For the Reading, Language Arts (RLA) we tested 23 out of 36 skills that had not been introduced, nor taught yet. 

This is setting children up for failure! This is their first big exposure to TCAP and we do this to them three times per year. After they read a few questions, and realize they don't understand the content, they shut down. They quit. I can't say I blame them. It doesn't get any better the next time the test rolls around. RTI2 (Response to Instruction & Intervention Initiative) needs to be looked into. I got started today, and it is jaw dropping!!!

If students are assessed on 23 of 36 skills not taught yet, the need for intervention is going to be high... and it was! I'm not sure what purpose DEA is serving, but it did cost Shelby County Schools $887,488.00 this year!

The DEA is a predictive assessment and I can't quite wrap my head around what that means. It is supposed to predict performance on TCAP and the EOC. If we are assessing students on skills not taught, how can we predict how they might do once they are taught? Very confusing to me. One thing I am certain of, SCS and any other district using this type of assessment needs to find a more productive way to spend their money. Wait... that would be our money!

(This was shared with permission by this elementary teacher in Shelby County)
 

Tennessee parents do not trust computerized assessments.  We trust real teachers.

A TN teacher speaks out about her own child:

I just found out that my kindergartner had to take the SAT-10 practice test and I am FURIOUS about it!  Why are they wasting his class time giving him a test he's not supposed to take until 1st grade? And why does he even have to take it in first grade?  And we're spending all of our time in PLCs planning more tests to get the kids ready for the big test.  And being told in PLCs how "powerful" this test prep worksheet was.  Seriously.  I'm choking on my own vomit over here.

This was shared anonymously, with permission, to protect this West Tennessee 3rd grade teacher and her kindergarten son.
 

A mother speaks of her children's experiences in Kindergarten:

     When my oldest child was in kindergarten, each classroom had a sweet little house center for kids to play in.  It wasn't fancy, but there was a little kitchen area with a pretend sink, fridge, stove, and a few plastic kitchen utensils.  There was also a little table, chairs, and a babydoll crib with dolls.  The teacher hung some old grown-up clothes and purses on hooks, too, so the kids could pretend to play family.  My child LOVED this center. 
     When my next child went to kindergarten (same school, same teacher), she was looking so forward to playing in that house center.  She'd seen her big sister's classroom when she would come with me to school when I helped as room parent.  On the first day of kindergarten for her, I walked her to her classroom.  We were both sad to see that the house center had vanished.
     I asked the teacher what happened to it.  She said that she wasn't sure if it was the district or the state that made them remove it, but that the house centers were taken out of all of the kindergarten classes in the district.  They are only allowed to have instructional materials in the classrooms now.
     How sad!  Those home centers were so wonderful for children to learn to get along, to dream about what kind of mom or dad they would be when they grow up, and just to use their imaginations!  Now, kindergartners do a whole lot of bubble worksheets instead and sit in front of computers clicking multiple choice answers.
     I feel like my 2nd child's kindergarten experience has been stolen.  She didn't enjoy kindergarten nearly as much as her big sister did.  

(This was shared anonymously, with permission, by a mother in Shelby County, TN)
 
Testing young children with standardized tests before 3rd grade is wrong.  Now, because of the Common Core in Tennessee, Kindergartners are being denied the important benefits of play:

"Too many schools place a double burden on young children.  First, they heighten their stress by demanding that they master material beyond their developmental level.  Then they deprive children of their chief means of dealing with that stress - creative play.  Kindergartners are now under great pressure to meet inappropriate expectations, including academic standards that until recently were reserved for first grade.  At the same time, they are being denied the benefits of play - a major stress reliever.  This double burden, many experts believe, is contributing to a rise in anger and aggression in young children, reflected in increasing reports of severe behavior problems.  Given the high rates of psychiatric disturbances among children today, it is critically important that early education practices promote physical and emotional health and not exacerbate illness."
  - Alliance for Childhood: Crisis in the Kindergarten (Click HERE to see the full report)
  

These TN teachers, under the safety of anonymity, tell what they really think:

• All we do is test, test, test. There is not enough time to Teach, Teach, Teach. 
• The reason I became a teacher more and more fades away. My love for students and their love for learning leaves because of the stress placed upon everyone involved. Teaching is not about students anymore. They are seen more as data and statistics rather than a personal child.
• I work at school until 5:00 PM everyday and spend hours working at home, because I love my students. Is this fair to my 10 year old and 4 year old? 
• Common Core is a bad idea being pushed through without support materials. You have the cart before the horse.
• There is too much testing. We are teaching kids to hate learning. 
• Teacher effectiveness scores do not correlate with true "teacher effectiveness" at my school. 
• Our curriculum (Pearson) is NOT common core. It says it is… it is not. CC is less standards but should delve deeper. That is not what Pearson Math or Reading does!
• I went into this job as a lifelong dream. I love my kids, I love my parents, and I love teaching and seeing my kids grow and learn; HOWEVER, I have found the things I love are being taken away. We test too much and are way too stressed as teachers...it is not right.
• Too much testing ‐‐ let us teach!
• Common Core is not Kindergarten developmentally appropriate
• I truly love being an educator, but have spent more time away from my family, in tears, and sick due to stress. This is not okay!  My students need more from this district and it begins with respecting us as educators.
• I feel my school is so micromanaged that I am limited to complete the needed things that I know my kids need. PLC's at our school feel forced and counter productive. The students are tested WAY too much and don't have time for authentic learning opportunities.
• I feel as teachers, no one is listening to how stressed, overworked, and underpaid we truly are for the job you are expecting us to perform. 
• Testing is ridiculous. Teachers are wasting too much time collecting data (numbers of no value). 30 to 35 days out of the school year is wasted for testing. Wasted time.
• Educators are not "human capital!" We could be excellent partners in making our school district a truly exceptional one, if allowed the opportunity!
• Assessments are excessive. Students in K‐2 should not be expected to participate in high stakes testing. They are not developmentally ready for this and it is pitiful to watch them take these tests. Our decision‐making as teachers has been reduced and we are not allowed to make decisions about what benefits our kids.
• CBM, TCAP, Discovery Ed, Module Test, SAT 10, CARE, summative test, formative tests … How much testing/assessment needs to be done to determine where a child is? What exactly are we assessing? Something is wrong when students are excited to simply watch an educational video at recess to "take a break."
• Teachers are overworked, putting in 60+ hours a week, at the expense of time with their own families. The students are as stressed as the teachers!
• Our children are over‐tested! Politicians think this is necessary. Educators need to stand up and let the politicians know this. Everyone working for a school district needs to be an educator, not a politician.
• Evaluation scores should not be 50% on how your class did on one test!
• I am expected to be a professional without being treated as one.
• I was told with the transition to CCSS that there would be less standards to cover with the intention of more times to go deeper with the material and reach a higher level of mastery … when will that happen? We still have to cover the same amount!
• The pacing that we are driving our K‐2 students is overwhelming. Students are moving at such a rapid pace they are loosing the enjoyment of learning. Many students that are already struggling feel defeated. As teachers without many extra hands, we feel overwhelmed with a task that seems out of reach. Please give more support staff.
• The overall morale of our school has greatly decreased in the past few year due to the evaluation model and implementation of Common Core.
• Too much focus on data and not enough focus on what really is good for children. We already know who needs help.
• I wish we were respected more and our pay reflected what we did for our societies future generations.
• Certain aspects of Common Core are acceptable, but others are not. For example, the selling point for CCSS, was that we would teach less standards more in‐depth. We haven't seen the "less" yet. More and more keeps getting added to our plates.
• Teachers aren't allowed to use their own judgment in making decisions for their classrooms. The district has put more value on data and numbers and have forgotten that we are teaching children who have human characteristics and problems. We are teaching to the test and students aren't truly learning for life. That is why we have to spend time reteaching the same skills every year.
• Some CC skills are not developmentally appropriate.
• My biggest concern at this time is the SAT 10 for kindergarten. I do not agree with putting the kids through 4 days of 1‐2 hours each day of sitting still and attending to a test. They cry, get frustrated, have belly aches, and talk throughout the test. The scores you receive from these tests are not a good picture of what they know. The kids would be better served if we kept portfolios, narratives, and running records.
• Our elementary kids are crying about coming to school because of all the testing. WHY DO WE NEED THAT MUCH TESTING???
• The common core standards, plus the rigid adherence to class subject schedules in elementary schools, have taken away the art and individualization with teaching
• Common Core and NGSS are a complete intrusion on teacher autonomy of the student learning process. Not to mention a massive waste of funds that could be used where they belong ‐‐ hiring qualified individuals and giving them a competitive and fair salary
• The acronym "TEAM" is a misnomer. All these evaluations undermine the wonderful team we had in place for decades. Now a demoralized staff that should be focused on individual students has to worry about demonstrating a plethora of good traits every day. Our personal commitment to our students is sabotaged by concern over personal ratings.
• It seems as if the adoption of common Core has now reached the most severely disabled students and their assessment for the next year is not in the best interest of the students, but only the company who is selling it. We no longer look at kids individually, but as the same.
• Please listen to the teachers who have expressed some serious issues with the evaluation process and common core standards. If so many people perceive problems ‐‐ there are problems!

Click HERE to read THOUSANDS of recent comments from Teachers in Knox County, TN.

You can also see more teacher comments on Twitter: #KnoxTeacherQuotes

Knox County teachers, like many other teachers in Tennessee, have valid concerns.  In the past few months, Knox County teachers have bravely spoken at their public school board meetings, even though they risked their jobs by doing so.  These teachers are committed to quality education and their students.

Their requests are fair, logical, and benefit their students:

• A validation system that respects teachers as professionals; provides useful content-specific feedback for growth; and does not detract from the educational process.
• An end to the excessive standardized testing that takes up valuable instructional time, restricts the curriculum, and treats children as data points.
• A redistribution of financial and other resources AWAY from corporate interests and back into our children's classrooms.
• An educational decision-making process that includes students, parents, and teachers as valid and valuable contributors and equal partners.

Today's business and education elite are passionate about the need to reform education.  Business and even education leaders argue that a data driven management approach to oversee teacher performance should be used to reform the education system. This approach is both naive and problematic on many levels.

Students are not inanimate outputs like machines or software.  Schools are not factories. Students are living and breathing individuals. Each student comes to the school with a unique personal history and personality which plays an integral role in his/her education process.

After a twenty year career in business, I decided to become a mathematics teacher. I returned to school to obtain another master’s degree in adolescent education. I was convinced that my management expertise would be readily transferable to teaching. I had managed an international staff, how hard would it be to manage a classroom of thirty or less students? Needless to say, I quickly learned that teaching students was far more complicated than managing adults. Why, you may ask?  There are three simple reasons that I would like to share with the business intelligentsia:

1. Your employees are paid to listen to you, your students are not.

2. In business, employees are selected based upon a search and interview process. Teachers do not select their students.

3. In business, an insubordinate employee is fired. An insubordinate student is merely one more challenge for a classroom teacher.

To judge the effectiveness of teachers based upon an annual high stakes test would be comparable to judging the effectiveness of a business leader based upon one meeting or one memo. A business leader may have an ineffective meeting because of a variety of reasons. Similarly, students' test scores on a particulate day are influenced by a host factors including their home life and social interactions.

Today's education policy appears to missing the mark. Vilifying all teachers will not rectify the problems which plague a subset of this country's education system. The current ineffective policies have been developed by individuals who lack experience teaching and are removed from students.

Nonetheless I do recognize that there are certainly lessons from business which are applicable to education. Here are a few for the NYS Education Commissioner and his colleagues to consider:

1. Those who are closest to the customer should provide the necessary feedback and market information so that sound strategies can be formed. Using business terminology, teachers with years of experience working with students are your best source of market intelligence.

2. Any large scale implementation requires a detailed project plan. It must be effectively managed as demonstrated by adhering to published deadlines and commitments. 

3. Communicate clearly and effectively to all your customers, colleagues, and staff. Listen to their concerns.

When I left the business arena to become a teacher, I naively had no idea of the complexities and challenges faced by teachers each day. Teaching is one of the most rewarding and challenging endeavors I have undertaken. Even though the career is much more demanding and complicated than I anticipated, the satisfaction I receive from a job well done more than compensates me for the effort I invest in teaching
my students. I hope that the numerous problems accompanying the education reforms now underway in New York and across the country will be acknowledged and appropriately addressed before the
education system is bankrupt.
 

Beth Goldberg is a Middle School Mathematics Teacher at Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, NY in the Mid-Hudson Valley.  Beth has been teaching for eight years since obtaining her Masters of Arts in Teaching at Bard College.  Prior to earning her MAT, Beth was a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase where she had global responsibility for a suite a payment services products.  Beth holds an MS in business from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in Mathematics from Wellesley College.  Beth has seen how mathematics skills can create transformative opportunity and she is dedicated to providing her students the solid mathematics foundation they will need to succeed in life.

In a brand new study just released this month, parents responded that their top choices for reforming their children's schools would be:
 
#1 choice:  Smaller class sizes
#2 choice:  Increasing technology in schools

Tennessee Parents know that data from this study will likely be "cherry-picked" to show support of reform, but if you notice the suspicious way the questions are worded and you research the organization that produced this study (Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice), you'll see that this study and paper were produced to further that organization's agenda to increase vouchers & charter schools.  (Those are 2 things that Tennessee parents do not want).

It is VERY TELLING that, even despite wording questions to get favorable results, they couldn't make charters or vouchers be the #1, #2, or even #3 choice from the people they surveyed!  How embarrassing for the Friedman Foundation!  Their own study and report didn't support their agenda.

Their report even has several pages on how to best phrase questions to get "favorable" results.  Don't believe us?  Read it for yourself.  Click HERE to see the report on SCHOOL CHOICE SIGNALS: Research Review and Survey Experiments by Dick M. Carpenter II, PH.D. January 2014
 

What Tennessee parents want:

• PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We want quality, adequately-funded neighborhood public schools with smaller, manageable class sizes.
   
• EQUALITY FOR ALL STUDENTS: We want every child, rich or poor, to attend quality neighborhood schools with real teachers, small class sizes, strong curriculum, great music opportunities, rich art programs, sports, support services, and safe buildings.

• LOCAL CONTROL:  We want to elect our local school boards to represent our public schools, and we want our local school boards to have control 
      ...not the TN Department of Education,
      ...not the Federal Department of Education,
      ...and not charter school owners.
   
• AN ELECTED COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION AND ELECTED TN BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS:  To be held accountable to the people they serve, and not to please the person who appointed them.

Tennessee Parents do NOT want:

• CHARTER SCHOOLS: We do not want our tax dollars given to educational entrepreneurs to gamble with our children's educations either through charter schools or virtual schools.  We want to continue to elect our school boards to represent our communities. 
• VOUCHERS:  TN parents are smart enough to realize that the quality private schools will not accept vouchers, and that the mediocre and poor private schools will grow in number but continue to produce mediocre or poor results for students.  This is what has happened in every city and state that allows vouchers.  It will happen in TN if vouchers pass.
• COMMON CORE:  The joint Resolution affirming TN's academic sovereignty is worthless.  If legislators were serious, it would be in the form of a Bill.  Stop blaming the curriculum, a botched implementation, and the Governor... get Common Core out of our State.
  

Huffman admits TCAP is not strong:

On September 20, 2013, during a Senate Education Committee hearing on Common Core, TN Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman made a statement that we believe should have been plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the state:

"But TCAP, I think most educators would say is inherently not a very strong test, not as strong as what we're aspiring to do because, ya know, it's a multiple choice test and, um, it doesn't have significant critical thinking or problem solving..."  (Go to this link and forward to 57:50 to hear this quote for yourself.)

So, let us get this straight:

Children are:

• being denied valuable classroom instruction,
• experiencing undue anxiety and stress,
• and receiving little-if any recess time

so they can prepare to take a test that is "not very strong"?

• and teacher job security and licensure depends upon student performance on this very same test?

A test that, by our Commissioner's own admission, does not contain "significant critical thinking or problem solving."

Parents, teachers, and students have known for years that the TCAP is not a "strong test," nor does it accurately predict a child's ability to think critically or problem solve.  Clearly, Mr. Huffman is aware of the limitations of TCAP as well.  Which begs the questions:

1. Why did Mr. Huffman and the Department of Education, in spite of this knowledge, continue to create and endorse misguided policies based on this test?
2. Why does the DOE state that parents must allow children to take the TCAP when it is clearly is not a "strong test"?
3. And why, now that Mr. Huffman has admitted the weaknesses of this test, are we giving the TCAP this school year - especially since the TCAP does not test the Common Core standards that our children are currently being taught?

California recently axed their state standardized test for this school year.  Let's follow in their footsteps and scrap the TCAP!

(This was reposted from www.StopTnTesting.com, an organized, committed, and growing group of Tennessee parents advocating for their children and against high-stakes standardized testing).
 

Huffman claims that PARCC will be better than TCAP, but New York's experience with PARCC last year tells quite a different story:

The PARCC test was given to students in New York state last school year and 70% of students failed the PARCC and are now required to take double math and English courses instead of band, chorus, art, or elective classes.  Parents in New York are outraged!

... but they are not outraged at their children for failing the PAARCC,

... and they are certainly not outraged at teachers,

Parents are angry at the STATE of New York for giving the inappropriate test.

And they are angry at PEARSON Publishing, too, who was paid millions of their tax dollars for the PARCC test.  Even more outrageous, Pearson included brand name products embedded in the PARCC test questions!

In fact, NY parents are so upset that tens of thousands of them have opted their children out of state testing, even if it hurts their child's grades.  (Click HERE to read about the powerful nationwide opt-out movement). 
 

According to the Truth in American Education website,

These States have pulled out of Common Core testing:

• Utah (Smarter Balanced)
• Oklahoma (PARCC)
• Georgia (PARCC)
• Alabama (Smarter Balanced & PARCC - they were an advisory state)
• Indiana (PARCC)
• Kansas (Smarter Balanced)
• Pennsylvania (Smarter Balanced & PARCC)
• Alaska (Smarter Balanced)

States Actively Considering Withdrawing:

• Michigan (Smarter Balanced)
• Kentucky (PARCC)
• North Carolina (Smarter Balanced)
• Iowa (Smarter Balanced)

States that never joined:

• Virginia
• Texas
• Nebraska
• Minnesota

According to the Hechinger Report, PARCC is even MORE expensive than TCAP: 

                          TCAP cost for TN = $20 million
                  PARCC will cost TN = $21-$25 million

...PLUS the cost of TECHNOLOGY and internet capabilities that our schools do not currently have to administer the tests.

...PLUS the cost to train teachers & administrators on the testing technology and also hire technology specialists to keep district computers updated.

...PLUS we will STILL have to pay for TCAP testing for Science & Social Studies because PARCC only tests English & Math!


Legislators:  Please do not make a mistake forcing an unproven test on our children that is an expensive, unfunded mandate to our districts.  Vote to delay or completely pull out of the PARCC testing for our children, like the smart States listed above have wisely done.

We had a meeting this week at my middle school in MNPS regarding the upcoming TN Writing Assessment. We are told we must do the practice online test, which will take our entire class time for a day. Sometime before the practice, we are required to enter the name, student ID, and birth date of each of our students. We are then supposed to score each of these practice tests. The actual assessment will take another full day. These tests don't count toward the students' grades nor the teachers' evaluation. That's a lot of lost time that could have been used for planning and actual teaching.

This link provides some examples of prompts. They are rather complicated for your average 10/11-year-old.
http://tncore.org/english_language_arts/writing_test/fifth_grade_prompts.aspx 

(This post was written by a Metro Nashville middle school teacher. Her name has been withheld to protect her anonymity.)
 

Tennessee Parents are tired of their children missing out on instruction time for seemingly useless testing. Teachers across the state estimate that 30-60 days of instruction are lost each year due to test preparation and administration. 


Please click HERE to read an excellent article about how testing is taking 1/4 of a school year away from students in Hamilton County, TN.  

1/4 year testing x 13 years of school per student = 3 years lost to standardized testing
 
This is unacceptable! 

If you are a school board member or Superintendent: Please talk with your teachers and ask them what tests, if any, they believe actually help guide their instruction. And then mandate only those tests. 

If you are a legislator:  Please consider passing legislation that would reduce the amount of standardized testing forced on our children by the state Department of Education. Please also consider introducing that would allow parents to "opt-out" of testing for their children and force school districts and schools to fully disclose every test that is given to their students throughout the year. 

If common core is so great, then why are people being forced and threatened into supporting it? Our PTA board was told that we'd be asked to resign if we publicly spoke out against Common Core, so I can imagine the teachers are being told the same thing!  I think the principal is behind it.  I looked in the bylaws and I didn't see anything where they can actually force someone out.  

Anytime CC even comes up, the whole tone of the school and the PTA president is eyerolls, condescending comments about Facebook rumors, conspiracy theories, etc. and they start quoting CC propaganda (state-led, federal government not involved, etc.)

I brought up CC issues several times at the beginning of the year & was told that it's the law, the school has to follow the law, and the PTA board's job is to support the school.  

Also the president announced that any funds the PTA earns beyond specifically budgeted amounts will go to "technology" (for test taking equipment, etc.)  (Doesn't this require a vote??)

I'm keeping quiet for now anyway.  The PTA President actually said that complaining won't do any good and just wait 5 years or so and it'll probably change!!

(This was posted anonymously to protect this parent in TN)
 


National PTA has received over $3 million dollars so far from the Gates Foundation to support Common Core, even though it goes directly against their own PTA Position Statement against creating standards without parental input.  

Unfortunately, money has the power to make some change their beliefs.  And, sadly, money has the power to make organizations betray their members.

The $3 million dollar question:
If common core is so great, then why are people being forced and threatened into supporting it?